Skutters
History Origin Skutters are maintenance robots used in Space Corps spaceships. There are at least two skutters in service onboard Red Dwarf, and thousands are said to be on board in the Red Dwarf Novels. Although only two full-size skutters were seen on screen at the same time during the series' run, there is little evidence whether Red Dwarf has only two working skutters or whether there are more. Lister mentioned there were at least four (at least in the areas they worked in) and that one of them was completely mad, when he outlines the menial status of both Rimmer and himself in the Pilot. The skutters on Red Dwarf have a liking for John Wayne, and are members of his fan club. (RD: Better Than Life) Since Arnold Rimmer's hologramatic form was not capable of handling physical objects, the skutters often found themselves doing menial tasks for him. According to Kryten in RD: The Last Day, one of the skutters is named "Bob." In RD: Back in the Red II, Lister names Bob's missus as "Madge". Other names given to skutters are "Stabbim" mentioned by Rimmer in RD: Confidence and Paranoia (though this is probably a fake name given the context), "El Skutto", also by Rimmer, in RD: Queeg (most probably a joke), and "Pinky and smegging Perky," once again used by Rimmer, in RD: Better Than Life. Pinky and Perky are a reference to the pig marionettes in the 1960's British show Pinky and Perky. "A skutter with the number 4457 printed on its front in maroon is visible at George McIntyre's funeral in RD:The End, moving to the beat when 'See You Later, Alligator' is played. When they twist their heads a certain angle, they can give a "two-fingered salute" to others, which they did to Rimmer ("Balance of Power", "Queeg", "Back to Earth") Technology The skutter design is a box that looks a bit like a hover mower with a single arm which ends in a three-clawed hand with an electronic eye. Unlike many other mechanicals, they were not fitted with a chip to make them believe in Silicon Heaven; this was to save money during production. Due to this they find the concept comical, and only something stupid mechanoids believe in. The skutters are also apparently able to reproduce, two skutters could work together in order to build a number of smaller skutters, as seen in RD: Parallel Universe. The actual level of intelligence the Skutters have displayed varies throughout the series. While incapable of speech, they are capable of understanding voice commands, and they are able to articulate more complex statements by writing them out with a pencil and paper (e.g. writing Lister a note begging him not to freeze himself again, because they didn't want to be left alone with Rimmer). They are stated to have a better union than the human maintenance workers, and are intelligent enough to enjoy movies and steal luxury items from different parts of the ship. On the other hand, both Rimmer and Lister have acknowledged that they aren't as intelligent as a human. At one point Rimmer was attempting to "cook" a fancy meal, by supervising the Skutters to physically manipulate the utensils in a kitchen. As Rimmer explained, "you say 'Keep an eye on that lamb' and they do, they sit there for three hours and watch it burn". In response, Lister chides Rimmer that he shouldn't be so hard on the Skutters, because they can only follow basic instructions and thus tend to follow them very literally. (RD: Better Than Life) At various points in the series, Lister doesn't officially count the Skutters as part of the crew (listing just himself, Rimmer, the Cat, Kryten, and Holly), but at other points he appears to be in a genuine friendship with some of the Skutters, such as worrying about Bob and his wife. Rimmer also taught the Skutters to play the Hammond Organ, employing them at his weekly Hammond Organ recital nights. (RD: Dimension Jump) Behind the Scenes According to the DVD commentaries for Series I, the remote controlled skutters were prone to catch interference from other radio wave sources and go haywire on set. In the three-part mini-series Back to Earth, the Skutters were not remote controlled machines and were instead rendered using computer graphics based on the hand movements of Danny John-Jules. The person who created them was a fan of the show, and created them in exchange only for a signed copy of the Back to Earth script. Trivia *The Skutters were referenced by a team of roboteers in the third series of Robot Wars (A show which was hosted for 6 years by Craig Charles) known as Team Scutterbots, who named their first robot after them, calling it Scutter's Revenge, which featured the Skutters being painted on the sides. Craig Charles would make an in-joke at the name, stating after its first victory "I wonder what a Scutter is?" Category:Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Robots Category:Series I Category:Series II Category:Series III Category:Series IV Category:Series VIII Category:Back to Earth Category:Red Dwarf Equipment Category:Red Dwarf Crew